As a teacher, you keep waiting for the day that and edict will come down from the county office and everyone will say, "What a good idea. It's about time someone thought of a soloution to that problem."

Some of the latest ideas from our county office:
All booster clubs must be audited every year to assure there is no fraud. Couple of problems--one: they have absolutely no control over booster clubs, they are private organizations and two: audits cost $800 to $1000 and would take away half or most of the budget of the smaller clubs. Booster clubs have to take care of themselves and the county office has no say so.

Edict number two--Chaperones for overnight field trips must be fingerprinted and have background checks done before they can chaperone students. A couple of problems--one: it is insulting to ask you to help and then ask you to go to the jail, be fingerprinted like a criminal, pay $30 for the privilege of being treated like a criminal and wait to be okayed as a chaperone. They are volunteers, not employees! and two: it is nearly impossible to get chaperones now.

Oh I see, this is a scam to cut down on field trips. Our lawyers want kids maintained in the classroom all the time because there is less risk and less chance of a law suit. This is the only issue for these morons. Education is not important, control of lawsuits is. Listen idiots. Remember the Pied Piper of Hamlin? Someone has got to pay the piper. Education has cost and risk. Get over it.

I hear the media decrying the dismal state of education today. Is there some way to compare it to education in the good ol' days, say in the 50's or 60's when the congressmen were getting educated? What do you think we'd find? If we are doing about as well as the good ol' days that built the richest nation on earth, wouldn't we be doing okay, not dismal. Is America going to hell in a hand basket? (Half full/half empty arguments). I thought Ronald Reagan told all you Repubs that it is only "Morning in America" and that we have centuries to come of prosperity. I think education has improved but criticism of education is at an all time high.

Todays AJC tells us that twice as many tests are now going to be required for students to graduate and that the result will be more high school drop outs. The whole purpose of todays leadership's focus on education is to convince us that public education is a failure and we should replace it with private education, paid for by the government? In other words. The parents of the rich kids who are already in segregated (by race, religion, or class) schools, want to be free of the responsibility they have to support public education. Take the money out to support their vice (segregation), and let public education flounder on whatever is left.

An idiot wrote into the AJC today to suggest that beginning teachers really make $53,700 (pro-rated) since they only work 190 days a year. (They actually make $35,900 in my county and only $32,600 in many counties across the state. And their 190 days are scattered over ten months. Furthermore, they have constant continuing education requirements for which they are not paid, which continue until retirement, even if they have a doctorate(!) that they try to work on during the now 8 weeks of summer left in the schedule. He also says teachers are bad because they had those education classes instead of more classes in their core areas. More calculus so you can teach that elementary school math. Don't learn anything about how children learn. Educational practice is ridiculous hocus pocus according to him. A couple of years ago the governor decided to have a six week course for any college graduate that would qualify them to teach. There was an uproar but he forced through the program. What do you think happened to those people? Every single one of them quit teaching by the end of the year.

My only question is why would the AJC print stuff written by an idiot? Are they just hate-mongering against teachers or are they that stupid in the editorial department? Not good either way.